IMPHAL, Sept 12 - Ahead of Manipur Assembly polls, Yumkham Erabot, a prominent leader in the Chief Minister Ibobi-led ruling Congress Ministry in the State tendered his resignation from Congress and joined the main opposition Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) on Monday. The State goes to polls early next year.

Yumkham Erabot, MLA of Wangkhei constituency in Imphal East district, one of the senior-most MLAs in the ruling party submitted his resignation papers to Speaker and Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee (I) this morning.

Elected six times as MLA, of which four times were on Congress ticket since 1980, Erabot, who had held various Ministerial portfolios including Food and Civil Supplies, Education and Public Health Engineering, said that he took the decision to resign from the primary membership of Congress “for victimising me in all fronts in the last 15 years.” He added that he resigned after consulting his supporters in Wangkhei constituency.

Later, in a crowded reception function here, BJP State unit President Kh Bhabananda accepted Irabot as a BJP member. Reacting to Irabot’s entry, Bhabananda accused the Congress as “personal and relatives development society.”

Alleging that the public cannot expect anything from the ruling Congress as the party failed to give respect to the honesty and integrity of a person like Irabot, Bhabananda said that Congress would have been disintegrated if there was no Tenth Schedule.

Meanwhile, Manipur Pradesh Congress Committee has reportedly expelled Irabot for six years from the membership of the party.